Our Franciscan Sponsorship Values, Informed by Prayer:

Franciscanism

St. Francis and St. Clare's journey to understanding and knowing God was a search and discovery process filled with personal interactions with other individuals. The ministry of St. Francis was also a very personal, human one. Rather than retreat solely to a life of contemplation and prayer like many of his peers, St. Francis combined a life of intense prayer and ministry, traveling on the roads and preaching the gospel to ordinary people, especially the poor. He shared his love of Jesus with them. He also founded a new religious order that is today one of the most popular in the world.

The Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg, Indiana are the modern legacies of this 800-year-old tradition of this evangelical (Gospel centered) spirituality. They are part of a worldwide community of over one million vowed and secular Franciscan men and women who live and pray with us and around us. In 1851, they began an educational endeavor—the foundational seed of Marian University—as a way to fulfill the mission and requirement to provide education to the community.

Four of the universal values given to them by their Franciscan heritage are the values that the Marian University community strives to live by each day. These values are grounded in prayer:

We view education as a journey of a lifetime and, in the same way that St. Francis did, we believe it is a personal journey full of human interactions and relationships. We are called to make a difference in our world and to follow Jesus' call to "Rebuild My Church."